A Potter's Love
by Ema Marsel
Summary: What if, is a main factor of this story. Harry Potter has had a secret love during the middle of the war. Not even his close friends know about his secret love and hasty marriage, but the night of the birth something terrible goes wrong that just might de
1. Chapter 1

Ok, just bare with me and please allow me to write thie story and get it from my head. I am still writing others, and PLEASE REVIEW. It inspires me to write more.

The quick overview.

A secret love, kept secret and a child concieved. A marriage of convience and loved came to thee. On the night of the birth, surrounded of death and gore, came the crumbling of the man, the saviour, the hero with the loss of his love. Now away into hidding must the child go, for if the saviour fails, must she be the next to deliver the blow.

Re-acquaintancing Oneself, Chapter One

Lightning struck the night sky that night. Light cracking the sky like the Grand Canyon and each lightning bolt strayed longer in the sky then the one before. If it hadn't been for the late night, the county of Kent would have had an early firework show but every occupant of the county was snuggly tucked safely in bed.

Unlike most storms, cold and drizzly this one had a warm feeling almost muggy. It smelled sweet and sour at the same time.

The banging of a door disturbed the slumbering occupants of number twenty-five of Elizabeth Street, in the sleeping suburbs of some town in Kent. The night had been irregular to say the least, being mid-summer the population was used to droughts, sunshine packed weekends to the coast, and blistering heat, but that day was filled with storm clouds and a major chance of snow.

BANG BANG

"Alright, alright, I'm a commin." Croaked an annoyed sleep laden voice. Dudley Dursley stepped lightly down the stairs hoping off the last step and lunged for the door hoping his wife wasn't disturbed. The twelve years passed since his last summer with his cousin had been easy on him. He had married, moved from the constant watch of his parents and set up a gym for the neighboring boys and girls to join and learn to fight.

The banging continued until he opened the door and was almost hit in the face with a fist. The lightning clapped behind the disturber illuminating his body. He noticed two heads on one body.

"Blood hell?" Dudley muttered when his eyes finally adjusted on the speculation.

There stood a ragged man, with a black shaggy mane of hair pouring over his shoulders, and his green eyes almost dull in color. The only distinguishing figure was the remaining scar on the man's forehead that had split open.

The rain started to pour down lightly but by the time his back was soaked did he make a gesture to move.

"So are you going to ask me in or not?" The voice snapped the silence like a tooth pick. Dudley stood aside allowing passage into his humble abode to his only cousin.

Harry stepped into the foyer and moved farther into the house until he found the living room and placed a bundle down on the plush couch. The bundle looked more like a package of blankets to Dudley's' eyes, but he knew it was more when it began to shift slightly by its own accord.

Harry took a step back glancing around the room; hold his wand steady and muttering a few words. Dudley too shocked by the appearance of his estranged family ignored the enchantments and charms being performed on his house.

"Well Dudley, life looks like it has been treating you well." Harry said stretching a bit after checking on the bundle that ceased its movement. "Mind if I borrow the WC?" Harry asked and Dudley motioned to some door down the hall way and continued to stand in the foyer looking around his living room. He didn't even hear the approach of his wife coming down the stairs calling his name, or when she stood a foot by him and asked his name again.

"Dustin?" She asked touching the crook of his elbow. She barely reached the height of his chin, so she started him to say the least. She jumped away from his fast reaction. "Dustin what is the matter?"

"Lara, what are you doing up?" He asked touching her shoulder.

"I woke and heard voices, so I came downstairs. What are you doing down here?" She asked looking around at her illuminated living room. Something was misplaced, and there was light coming from nowhere. "Dustin, what was that banging earlier?"

"Oh, that would be-

"Dudley, I think your WC is on the fritz." Harry said emerging from the bathroom only to startle some strange woman, she started screaming and both men jumped at her outburst.

"DUSTIN, THE MAN FROM THE NEWS, THE SERIEL MURDERER. HERE IN THE HOUSE?" Her screams were soon silenced by the use of magic before muffled by her husband's hand.

"Bloody hell Duds, you picked on with a voice on her." Harry said, his hair recently returned to his normal length, and his face cleaner then two minutes prior. Lara continued to scream but only to scream silence and sound mute to the men.

"Pollocks Harry, what the hell are you doing here?" Dudley asked before catching his wife from fainting.

They moved swiftly to the living room, Dudley sitting with his bride on one couch and Harry placing himself next to the bundle that started to shift, but Harry rubbed the blankets gently and soon the movement stopped again.

"Harry what the bloody fuck are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Dudley asked putting his wife to lie on one half while he sat across from Harry. He starred at the bundle with wondering eyes. "You look like hell."

"Well thanks Duddy-kins." Harry snarled sarcastically but shook his head. "Sorry Duds," he apologized but Dudley waved it off.

"It's not Dudley anymore by the way." He mentioned. Harry looked bewildered. "I changed when I became legal to Dustin. I couldn't handle the name like Dudley in the real world. I mean, how could I be taken seriously in the fighting world with a name like Dudley."

"You did always sound like a candy jingle." Harry laughed but his laughter quickly died and he starred at the strange woman. "Your wife?" Dudley nodded and held her hand. "Sorry I couldn't make the nuptials, I was busy."

Dudley nodded. "I didn't blame you for not showing."

"Dud, I mean Dustin, I don't blame you for anything your parents doing. Well I might hold some grudges but I came to ask a favor of you." Harry starred slowly at the carpet.

Dudley looked strangely at his cousin, gone were the glasses and the quiet boyish behaviors. He looked ragged and torn. He looked closer to death then to life and his face showed no life only mirth. "Before you ask me anything Potter, what the hell are you doing?"

Harry pointed at the bundle and slowly opened the blankets to show a slumbering child. "My daughter is the reasoning I am here."


	2. Pleas of Flesh and Blood

'Bloody hell' was the only thought floating through Dudley's mind when the child was revealed sleeping soundly in the fleece blankets. "Christ Harry, she barely looks more than couple hours old!" He finally snapped the silence.

"Dudley, I need your help." Harry said holding the child in his arms peering at the slumbering being that turned towards his body heat. "I can't keep her, not now my world is just too dangerous." He looked down at the infant, the one last shard keeping him from going insane and on a killing spree. His life had always been keeping oneself safe, but then he went and fell in love and now he had a child in the result of that love. His wife, dead, and not all he had left of his secret family was this child he was handing over to his first family.

A family, he didn't remember, and a family that almost ruined him in the first place.

"But what of her mother? Potter please tell me this is a-

"No Dudl- ehm Dustin, sorry old habits." Harry apologized. "No, she was born in wedlock, even if she wasn't would not make any difference." He was adamant in his statement and Dudley just nodded his head. He looked at the child laying in his cousins arms, not wanting to know the favor Harry had yet to ask, and if he had the heart to answer.

He looked at his own wife, knowing her desire for a child, but their unlucky circumstances of life, her chances of ever carrying a baby full term was sheer to none, and they decided before taking extreme measures for conceiving a child they would see what life would throw at them.

This was definitely a curve ball coming from left field.

"But Harry, the child's mother, shouldn't she have some say or responsibility in the matter concerning her child?" Dudley asked trying to gain some information from his cousin's face. Harry's eyes looked from the child straight into his cousins, grief pouring out of his sockets, and he the answer screamed at him in the face.

"There no longer is a mother." Harry stated matter-o-factly and starred hard at the wall holding it up mentally as he held up his own mental walls surrounding his heart. Dudley was taken back by the brisk brush off.

"Harry what the bloody hell happened?" Dudley asked shaking Harry from his focal point.

"She wasn't strong enough to make it through childbirth, or the doctor informed me. He said he was lucky to save the baby." Harry looked back to the child in question holding her strangely to look at her face to face.

Dudley realized the grief coming from his relative. The man, who was about to break, was not present at the birth of his child. Traditionally, the father of the child waited in the waiting room with friends and family while the mother is whisked away to a delivery room, far away were the unwelcome sounds of struggle and a doctor would come out and announce to the family he a new baby boy, or girl. Preferably a boy, but what could you really do?

But the man before him was not seated in a waiting room, or near a waiting room of any kind. The man before him probably was informed after the fact, the fact being the death of his wife, and near fatal birth of his daughter. He has probably only spent a good hour at most with the child, no more than that.

"Harry, how long has it been?" Dudley asked delicately not wanting to break the barrier; he was never good with tears from the same or opposite sex. Children especially, he was at a lost the first time when a young girl sustained a superficial wound but tears still ensured, and he nearly called the queen herself if he had the number.

"About a five hours." Harry muttered, and wrapped the baby back in her blankets not wanting her to catch cold. "I wish you could've met her Duds. She really was only short of amazing."

Harry looked down to his wrist were a watch showed no time. "Damn, Dudley I may only have about twenty minutes until I have to move again, either I need to charm your wife to wake up and ask you two an enormous favor, or you come with me to another destination."

"Charm my wife to wake?" Dudley asked to himself but Harry took this as his choice and motioned his hand towards the woman lying on the couch. She began to stir, and when her eyes opened, she looked directly at Harry.

"Balls Harry. I didn't want you to do that!" An enraged Dudley snapped when he saw the movement from his wife.

"Sorry, but really this needs to happen, I can't chance taking her anywhere else." Harry muttered, Lara lying on the couch started to panic thinking the man she loved, married and shared a life with was a lie. Now she thought her life was in danger. "She is too young to chance apparition to many times in her life."

The cooing of a young child really startled Lara and she sat up straight looking around the room for the sound. Harry looked directly at his cousin's bride. "Before I uncharm you, please refrain from screaming your lungs off again, I will explain everything shortly if you allow me the chance." Lara looked into his piercing green eyes feeling them burn into her soul, and she looked to her husband who nodded his head encouraging to allow him to continue.

"Finite Incantatem," Harry muttered and waving his fingers at the woman again.

"Dustin, what the hell is all of this?" She snapped when she realized her voice was back but covered her mouth because she didn't realize the harsh tone or the sheer volume to be so immense.

"Who the hell are you?" She snapped looking Harry directly in the eyes. She felt a cold all over when she stared into his piercing green eyes. She knew she had seen those eyes before, in a picture somewhere.

"My name is Harry Potter." Harry said simply looking at her as if she had asked about the weather. He stared at her mentally assessing her, and storing her image into his mind. She had flowing black hair, bright blue eyes that shimmered in the light but darkened when she was angry, like she was now.

"What are you doing in my house at three in the morning?" She asked calmly looking at her husband who took her hand.

"Is it really that late," Harry said glancing at his watch and shook it. "This thing doesn't really keep time." He said tapping the watch glass.

"What are you doing here then?" She proceeded to ask and Harry looked at her knowing he couldn't delay the inevitable.

He opened the blankets in his arms and held a baby into her view. The little girl twisted a bit opening her eyes to look around the room. Lara looked at the little darling and melted at the cooing child.

"This is my daughter. I need your help to keep her safe." He stated simply. Lara looked at the baby sitting in the wild man's hands. He lifted her to Lara who looked to her husband for approval. Dudley simple nodded, and Lara took the half sleep babe into her arms.

"I don't understand." Lara said softly admiring the child sleeping in her arms. "Did you just pick a doorway to drop off a child at?" She looked to the man sitting across from her.

Dudley gulped but decided to answer this one.

"Lara, remember that cousin, my dad was telling you about?" Dudley asked.

"The one who died in some fishing accident?" Lara answered unsurely and Harry laughed out right, looking to Dudley who started to cough.

"No!" Dudley said loudly causing the child to open her bright blue eyes. "Sorry, no that was some dumb bloke on my dad's side and he didn't die, sorry Harry, no this is my cousin on my mum's side." Lara's eyes went big and looked at Harry and started to hold the baby back over to him.

"Nothing is wrong with him Lara." He snapped watching her hand the baby away. "He's not insane I mean."

"Vernon told people I was insane?" Harry laughed again.

"He said that you thought yourself as being magical." Lara said laughing but Harry and Dudley clammed up. "Oh come on, you two don't really believe that rubbish, you don't really think you are magical do you?" She asked, but Harry looked directly at her and Dudley nodded.

"That is one of the reasons I have to give her away to keep her safe." Harry looked to Dudley. "Voldemort is still alive. And you guys are the farthest thing from the magical world that I can trust. Please say you will keep her."

Lara looked at the babe sleeping in her arms, and looked to Dudley, who gave her a look telling that the decision was up to her. She touched the child's head watching how the baby reacted to her touch pushing into it, and Lara's heart belonged to the baby now.

As he watched his wife react to the baby, and cuddle it even closer, Dudley answered for the both of them, "Yes Harry, you can count on us to keep her safe."

"Thank you so much," Harry stood up but fell back to a sitting position clutching his forehead. "Shit! I have to leave they are getting closer." Harry clutched his forehead catching the blood in his hands. Lara screamed softly causing the baby to start crying from the noise. "I… have… to… go, there's… a letter in her blankets, I'm sorry, thank you."

Harry disapparated leaving the couple with a new baby.

_Dear Cousin,_

_You are the last person I can trust at the moment. My life is full of darkness and despair. As you can see, I have passed on another generation, and there is no place in my world for the child of Harry Potter. It is too dangerous, and I can not keep her safe. No one in the wizarding world knows of her birth, or even the secret affair her mother and I had going or the marriage I once had. Please tell me, I can trust you to keep her safe and love her as if she was your own. Her mother child in child birth, not being strong enough to bear a child into the world without loosing herself. _

_I have bound any magic abilities she might have to myself this means she will be like any normal muggle child and you will not have to worry about any extra abilities she might possess, I took this precaution because of the power of her mother had, and myself, and I performed different charms on her, really they are ancient magical charms that will keep her safe, and one that will tie you, myself and her. So if anything fatal happens to either of us, one will be alerted. I did this more as a precautionary to you and your wife, then myself so you know if anything does happen to me, and my legacy is lost forever. I want you to know that if I do die, all the bonds set in place on her magic being bound will be terminated, and you will have a magical child._

_Please Dudley take my child in to your house with loving arms, and keep her from any harm that might ever come. There is no danger from the other world you have to worry about, because any person that knows of my secret marriage or of my daughter have been taken care of, so just worry of the muggle world._

_Thank you my cousin, for taking the time of reading this and taking in my flesh in blood, because I could not trust anyone else with my child. I know of your marriage to your own wife, and the challenges you have come to face in becoming a father, please allow me to help you along the way with the job of looking after my own. You will always be family to me._

_Sincerely and Thankful,_

_Harry_

_P.S. I almost forgot, her name is Grace._


End file.
